Thorin’s CS:GO Top 10 World Rankings – 27th June 2016

CS:GO has always struggled for a consistently updated and coherent set of World Rankings, with so many teams attending different events and the difficulty of judging the context of which event’s results should count for more than another. Rather than construct some kind of elaborate point system and place my expertise into the task of allocating which would receive how many points, I’ve instead looked back over the recent form of each of the teams out there and determined, according to my own analysis and intuition, which team ranks where in my global top 10.

Offline results are the only ones I take into consideration. In general, I consider the results of a team across a range of around three months, with those at the beginning of that period being weighted a little less, in contrast to more recent tournament results. Finishes, consistency, current form and opponents faced are all factors to be weighed up and considered.

Since the last edition of the rankings we’ve had the ESL One Cologne Qualifier, the first five ELEAGUE groups, Dreamhack Summer and ECS S1 Finals.

Luminosity’s results earlier in 2016 were impressive and consistent, but the passing of time has only strengthened their position at the top, as they have won three of their last five events and two of those titles were significant international tournaments. They couldn’t take down the ECS S1 tournament, but another final only strengthened their position at the top of the rankings, with few of the teams just below them winning titles.

It shows how consistently excellent the Brazilians have been that they have won Bo3 series over six of the nine other teams ranked here. When the major arrives, they will enter as the favourites.

The story continues in much the same vein for Na`Vi that their consistency in reaching the final of tournaments keeps them in position in the top two, but their lack of trophies is always a point of danger for them in the future. The CIS squad still has some notable Bo3 series wins to their name.

NiP may have lost the Dreamhack Summer final, and ECS was a disaster, but they are still putting a solid resume which has them poised to challenge Na`Vi for that second spot in due time. Bo3 series wins over Astralis and GODSENT meant the Ninjas added some more significant wins to their record.

G2’s red hot form at ESL looked to have cooled off, as they failed to win their ELEAGUE group and barely qualified for the major. One could easily have written the ProLeague run as a miracle heater, but last weekend showed otherwise. Somehow, the French squad went one further, this time besting Luminosity to take their first big international title with this line-up.

Bo3 wins over NiP and and FNATIC also saw shox’s men boosting their record quite a bit, with one of the biggest and yet most impressive upset runs we’ve seen in some time. G2 now have Bo3 series wins over three of the top four ranked teams. All factors combined see G2 leaping up the rankings to a level no Titan/G2 line-up has ever reached.

FNATIC return to real activity with olof rejoining the ranks, but it has not been an immediate jump back to the top spot. Winning in ELEAGUE saw them looking strong, but with a couple of missteps. Most surprising was their loss in the semi-final of ECS, which proved to be an important placing to keep them ahead of Astralis, with the last FNATIC title having dropped out of contention for the rankings.

At the major, FNATIC will be in trouble of falling even lower if they should stumble in the group stage or fail to gain a top finish. As a team, they have only won three Bo3 series over top 10 ranked opposition in the last three months, with those being wins over FaZe and TL, hardly world beaters. This is not the FNATIC you once remember, but it has the pieces to be again.

Immortals’ failures in the final of the Americas Minor and then at the major qualifier were quite embarrassing for a team who has climbed this high, but, as I’ve explained many times, losses do not count in a ranking, only wins. Think of it logically, for a moment: if FNATIC attend a tournament that Astralis do not and lose very badly to a team Astralis would not lose to, why would Astralis gain ground for not playing and FNATIC lose it for playing? In such a scenario, Astralis can only gain ground and points if they also attend and add wins and a placing to their record.

With that out of the way, for the little good it will do, Immortals’ victory at Dreamhack Summer saw them beating out GODSENT and NiP in Bo3 series, both top 10 ranked opponents. They also added another title, albeit still not one featuring a top two ranked team in attendance. The up and down nature of Immortals does not oclude their upwards drive of their big wins. This is a team win Bo3 wins over dignitas, GODSENT and NiP in the few months, as well as a Bo5 win over Virtus.pro. That’s a very impressive body of work for a team who were still unproven offline until March of this year.

It’s shocking to imagine two Brazilian teams could be ranked in the top five, but if FNATIC fumble at in the next few events, it may become a reality.

Changing cajunb out for Kjaerbye takes a little from the significance of Astralis’ past results, but they still managed a decent enough top four finish at Dreamhack Summer. They couldn’t win a Bo3 series at Dreamhack, but with the opponent being NiP that felt par for the course if you’ve been following Astralis. What was more disturbing was their last place finish at ECS, where they had a chance to gain valuable ranking points.

What was once one of the most consistently elite teams in the world finds themselves staring at a record of only two Bo3 wins over top 10 ranked opponents. When that MLG run disappears from consideration entirely, Astralis will need some quality performances to regain a top ranking.

VP have continued to be a hard team to beat offline, but their victory at Starladder saw them finally take a step back towards the elite end of the spectrum, with a Bo3 win over Na`Vi, not a team who lose two out of three maps to teams outside of the top 4 with except on rare occasions. Still, one Bo3 series does not an elite team make, so VP have more work to be done.

EnVyUs look poised to return to some kind of form, qualifying for the major without too much difficult and trying out a new approach, with Devil as the in-game leader. Few results over the last few months mean that they have not got the record to push them higher up, though.

Their first appearance in the rankings last month is followed up by retaining their spot this month. Adding a top four at Dreamhack Summer, as well as a Bo1 defeat of NiP, builds the resume a little. A big problem for GODSENT, though, is that their failure to come even close to qualifying for the major means they will be sat watching other team gain potential ranking points.